Sylvia Muller finds inspiration in Las Vegas with the help of a Travel Grant from the Biochemical Society

‘In the end of May this year I had the chance to attend the annual meeting for the International society of cellular therapy (ISCT) which was held in a warm and sunny Las Vegas, Nevada.

The program included talks by leaders in the field of cellular therapy as well as early stage researchers and covered topics as varied as a possible treatment for ALS to the effect of microgravity on tissue regeneration. My personal highlights include a talk by Dr Sarah Gilpin on the production of decellularised lungs from transplant, Dr Selim Kuci’s talk on improved T-Cell regeneration through MSCs and HSCs cotransplantation, Dr Joseph Frank’s talk on the use of pulsed focused ultrasounds to enhance MSC migration in vivo and the talk by Dr Eduardo Almeida from NASA who discussed the effect that space flight has on bone regeneration and showed some videos of newts is space.

On the Friday I had a chance to present my poster entitled ‘CD271 enrichment of BM-derived MSCs enhances their osteogenic potency’. I had a good deal of interest in my work and was able to discuss it with other researchers who work in a similar field.

As a final year PhD student, a part of my aims for the meeting was to make some connections for my future career. I was able to introduce myself to researchers from Germany who work on CD271 MSCs and I had the chance to discuss my work with them. I was also able gather information about possible future post-doc opportunities in the US.

In addition to the extensive program of talks and workshops, the conference gave me the chance to visit Las Vegas and sample some of its delights.

I am very grateful for the grant provided by the Biochemical society which helped pay for my flights and accommodation. The conference has given me a number of ideas for my current project, and gave me the opportunity to make some important connections in the cellular therapy field.’